Car coupling



Ma 12, 1959 c. K. STEINS 2,886,188

' CAR COUPLING Filed March 5; 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG; 5

INVENTOR.

[01162012 KSZei/LS, P & PM

ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent() CAR COUPLING Carleton K. Steins, Merion Station, Pa., assignor to The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 5, 1956, Serial No. 569,605

Claims. (Cl. 213-51) This invention relates to a coupler for railway vehicles, and more particularly concerns sucha coupler adapted for limited lateral movement.

For many years the railroads have been confronted with the problem of derailments of trains being pushed up grade. These derailments are caused by the high lateral forces developed in heavy pusher service. The tendency is for the coupling to jackknife, i.e. the center line of the coupling between the cabin car and the first pusher locomotive, also between the pushing locomotives where more than one is employed, takes a position oblique to the line tangent to the curve of the track. Thus, the pushing force is broken into tangential and lateral components with the lateral component sometimes of enough magnitude to force the cabin car or locomotive off the track. The problem has been intensified in recent years with the increased use of diesel locomotives because of their ability to exert full horsepower at slow pushing speed.

The smaller the angle between the longitudinal axis of the coupler and the tangent line of the railroad track, the smaller in magnitude will be the lateral component of the pushing force. It has heretofore been proposed to reduce the size of this angle by inserting stops in the sides of the striker opening, thus restricting the lateral swing of the coupler shank. There is a practical limit however, beyond which the angle of lateral swing may not be restricted. The angle of the lateral swing must be sufiiciently large to permit cars and locomotives to operate and travel around relatively sharp curves in railroad yards which are of much shorter radius than the curves of main track where the heavy pushing is done.

It is accordingly an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages just referred to.

It is another object of this invention to provide means for limiting the lateral movement of a coupler while in heavy pusher service, yet allowing greater lateral movement of the coupler when used in other than heavy pusher service. i

It is another object of this invention to provide means limiting the lateral movement of a car coupler, the magnitude of such lateral movement being automatically controlled by the amount of pushing force exerted against the coupler.

Another object of this invention is to provide a means for limiting the lateral movement of a car coupler, which limiting means is relatively inexpensive and convenient to install in existing equipment.

Still another object of this invention is to provide means having co-operating contacting surfaces for automatically adjusting. the degree of lateral movement of a car coupler, which is of rugged construction and is so designed that the cooperating contacting surfaces, which are subjected to the most wear, have the maximum area.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will further become apparent hereinafter and in the drawings of'which: i i Fig. 1 represents a top plan view of a coupler comprising one specific embodiment of this invention, with cerice extended;

Fig. 2 represents an enlarged view similar to Fig. l,

with the coupler retracted;

Fig. 3 represents a central sectional view of the apparatus of Fig. 2, with the coupler shown in full elevation, and with portions of the coupler removed in order more clearly to illustrate important details;

Fig. 4 represents a view of the coupler in side elevation;

Fig. 5 represents a view in cross section taken as indicated by the lines and arrows V-V which appear in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 represents a perspective view of a coupler shank wedge piece; and

Fig. 7 represents a perspective view of the components of the striker in assembled position.

Although specific terms are used in the following description for clarity, these terms are intended to refer only to the structures shown in the drawings, and are not intended to define or limit the scope of the invention.

Turning now to the specific form of the invention selected for illustration in the drawings, the numeral 11 designates generally a draft gear having a housing 12 in which are mounted the usual springs 13 which may be either metallic or rubber, guide rods 14, front follower 15 and with a coupler yoke 16 longitudinally disposed therein and adapted for longitudinal movement with respect to the draft gear pocket side walls 17. Rearwardly extending flanges 18 of enclosure 12 are fixed and secured to a center sill 19 by means of rivets 21, or by welding.

Pivotally connected to the head 22 of coupler yoke 16 by means of a pin 23 is a coupler 24 having a head 25 and a shank 26. On opposite sides of shank 26 is welded a wedge shaped piece 27 having its largest cross sectional area disposed nearer the coupler head end and away from the coupler yoke. Wedges 27 are provided with contact surfaces 30. Surfaces 3i? may be case hardened or provided with wear resistant plates (not shown).

The outer ends of center sill 19 are formed into a transverse flange 28 with facing shoulders 29 that define an aperture 31 in which coupler yoke head 22 is disposed with clearance between the head 22 and the shoulders 29. The opposite end of flange 28 is turned at right angles to form an outwardly extending portion that comprises the side wall 32 of a striker member designated generally by the number 33.

Besides the striker side wall 32, striker member 33 includes flange 28 as an inner wall and has also a striker top plate 34, see Fig. 7, a striker bottom plate 35, a striker outer plate 36 which is arranged vertically and abuts the outer ends of the striker plates .34, 35, a vertically arranged yoke stop 37 and a stationary vertical coupler shank stop 38. These components of the striker are assembled as shown in Fig. 7 and are arranged in the over-all mechanism as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

The stationary coupler shank stop 38 is provided with two contact surfaces 41 and 42, the plane of surface 41 intersecting the plane of surface 42 at an angle.

Fig. 5 illustrates how the coupler shank wedges 27 are welded to the square shaped hollow coupler shank 26 by continuous welds along the top and bottom of the coupler shank wedges.

From the foregoing description the operation of the apparatus will readily be apparent. In heavy pusher service, the heavy pushing forces force in the coupler 24 and the coupler yoke 16 against the resistance of the draft gear 11 as shown in Fig. 2, front follower 15 assuming a position spaced away from transverseflange 28. Pin 23 Patented May 12, 1959 having been pushed laterally into retracted position, the lateral movement of the coupler shank 26 is limited to the angle defined by two imaginary lines struck from the center point of pin 23 and tangent to the vertical surface 42 of stationary coupler shank stops 3%. The angle of the vertical surface 42 of coupler stops 38 and the angle of the contact surface 30 of coupler wedges 27 are such that on full lateral movement of coupler 24 when in heavy pusher service, surfaces 42 and 3th willbe in sub stantially full contact.

In other than heavy pusher service where the pushing forces are insufficient to compress the draft gear 11, the apparatus will appear in its extended position as shown in Fig. 1 and, as so positioned, greater lateral swing of thecoupler 24 is permitted than when the draft gear is compressed. Here, the outer contact surface 41 of stationary shank stops 38 co-operate with contact surface 30 of coupler shank wedges 27 to limit the lateral movement. The angle of lateral movement is, of course, larger since the pin 23 is now positioned longitudinally nearer to the stationary shank stops 3%. A comparison of the position of pin 23 in Fig. l with its position in Fig. 2 will illustrate this point. The angle of the vertical surface 41 of stationary coupler shank stops 38 and the angle of the contact surface 30 of coupler wedges 27 are such that on full lateral movement of coupler 24, when in other than heavy pusher service, surfaces 41 and 30 will be in substantially full contact.

It is to be understood that the form of the invention herewith shown and described is to be taken as a preferred embodiment. Various changes may be made in the shape, size and arrangement of parts. For example, equivalent elements may be substituted for those illustrated and described herein, parts may be reversed, and certain features of the invention may be utilized independently 'of the use of other features, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the subjoined claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a railway car having a coupling device supported in a center sill, said coupling device including a yoke slidably supported by a draft gear and striker, and a coupler having a shank pivotally connected to the yoke, said coupler being connected with capacity for sidewise swinging movement, said yoke being spring urged longitudinally toward the coupler and said draft gear being supported in said center sill, means for limiting the sidewise swinging movement of said coupler, comprising spaced side walls extending forwardly from the center sill, said yoke and shank being longitudinally disposed intermediate said walls and adapted for longitudinal and lateral movement relative to said walls, yoke stop means fixed on said side walls and positioned for contact with 'said yoke for limiting its lateral movement, a pair of wedge shaped protuberances afiixed to opposite sides of said shank and including a flat contact surface, and shank stop means afiixed to said walls and arranged for contact with the flat contact surface of said protuberances, said shank stop means including a contact surface adapted for substantially flush contact with said shank contact surface when said shank is in its extended position, and said shank stop means including another contact surface adapted for substantially flush contact with said shank contact surface when said shank is in its retracted position, whereby said shank is permitted less sidewise swinging movement in its retracted position than in its extended position.

2. A coupling device for a railroad car com rising a striker member fixed to said car, a coupler having a head and a shank, said shank being connected with capacity for sidewise swinging movement and longitudinal reciproeating movement relative to said striker member, a pair of stop members fixed to opposed sides of said striker member, and a pair of Wedge shaped protuberances mounted on said coupler shank in a position to contact said stop members to limit sidewise swinging movement of said coupler relative to said striker member, said protuberances having substantially flat contact surfaces, and each of said stop members having a pair of intersecting, angularly arranged substantially flat contact surfaces, one such angularly arranged surface being arranged to contact the corresponding protuberances surface when the coupler is in its extended position, and the othersuch angularly arranged surface being arranged to contact said protuberance surface when the coupler is longitudinally retracted, one of said angularly arranged substantially flat contact surfaces being arranged at a greater angle than the other surface with respect to the longitudinal, whereby the extent of permissible sidewise movement of said coupler when extended is greater than from its permissible swinging movement when retracted.

3. In a railroad car coupling device including a'yoke slidably supported by a draft gear and striker, and acoupler having a shank pivotally connected to the 'yoke, said coupler being connected with capacity for sidewise movement, and including a draft gear working against said yoke urging the yoke longitudinally toward said "shank, means for limiting the sidewise swinging movement of said shank comprising a pair of stationary striker members disposed on either side of said shank, said striker members including stationary shank stop means with an inner contact surface and an outer contact surface, the angle between said outer contact surface and the longitudinal axis of said striker members being greater than the angle between said inner contact surface and said longitudinal axis, a pair of oppositely disposed wedge shaped protuberances fixed to said shank and arranged for a co-operative engagement with said striker members, whereby said protuberances contact 'said outer contact surface when said shank is in its extended position and whereby said protuberances contact said inner contact surface when said shank is in its retracted position, the gle of said inner contact surface being the complement of the angle of the protuberance when said inner contact surface is in engagement with said protuberance and the angle of said outer contact surface being the complement of the angle of the protuberance when said outer contact surface is in engagement with said protuberance.

4. In a railroad car coupling device, a coupler shank having oppositely disposed wedge shaped protuberances fixed to said shank, said protuberances including a fi'at contact surface, striker members arranged on each side of said shank and in spaced relationship thereto and piesenting a plurality of fiat abutment surfaces to said protuberances to said flat contact surface on each respective protuberance, the angular relationship between each'su'ccessive outwardly directed abutment surface of said plurality of surfaces and the longitudinal axis of the striker members being greater than the angular relationship 'between the preceding abutment surface and said longitudinal axis.

5. In a railroad coupling device, stationary striker members arranged in spaced relationship to each other, each of said striker members including a plurality of flat abutment surfaces, the angular relationship between each successive outwardly directedabutment surface of said plurality of surfaces and the longitudinal axis of the striker members being greater than the angular relationship between the preceding abutment surface and said longitudinal axis.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,136,159 Nash Apr. 20, 1915 1,174,094 Simonson Mar. 7, 1916 1,703,049 Whitridge Feb. 19, 1929 1,890,779 Glascodine Dec. 13, 1932 1,890,795 Spencer Dec. 13, 19 32 

